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HERITAGE STATEMENT ON EPP OBSERVER STATUS AND POLITICAL CORRUPTION IN ARMENIA
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/politics25098.html
Published: 15:37:09 - 10/02/2012
The Heritage Party is pleased to have been granted observer membership
in the European People's Party by decision of its Political Assembly
meeting in Brussels.
Heritage has been an ideological carrier of EPP values from its
inception, and to date has taken consistent part in the activities of
the EPP group at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
Euronest, OSCE and elsewhere.
We are encouraged by the opportunities afforded us by the achievement
of observer status, which also is shared by the ruling Republican
Party and its coalition partner the Country of Laws Party.
At the same time we are deeply concerned, on this eve of parliamentary
and presidential elections in our country, by the unprecedented level
of political corruption prevalent here.
In addition to the flagrant examples of conflicts of interest between
public duty and partisan gain as outlined in Heritage chairman
Raffi K. Hovannisian's good-faith letter, dated 21 November 2011, to
Republican Party chairman and incumbent president Serzh Sargsyan,
together with his unresponsive outburst in reaction thereto,
the National Assembly-in which all three EPP observer members are
represented-continues to offer haven to electoral theft and political
forgery.
One recurrent episode took place on the very day EPP observer status
was conferred and the three parties acceded to a common declaration
of intentions and principles. In keeping with a long tradition of
voting fraud both at the polls and in parliament, various individuals
representing the EPP-observing coalition, with the conscious
assent and attempted cover-up of the legislature's leadership (again
observer party members), were complicit in the commission of outright
falsification, that is, the unlawful casting of votes in the place
of absent colleagues and in plain view of fellow MPs, journalists,
and the public. On this occasion, the foregoing was done for the
parliamentary majority's illegitimate securing first of a quorum and
then of their desired outcomes on several measures of substance.
In the event of even one further instance of this criminal conduct-in
the National Assembly, at the Presidency, or during the upcoming
elections-the Heritage Party will be unable to reconcile, whether
politically, ethically or otherwise, its participation in the great
family of European parties known as EPP with the presence of those
responsible for such anti-democratic, anti-Armenian, and anti-European
demeanor.
In this connection, but as a matter to be treated separately,
we cannot but express our consternation upon the Armenian prime
minister's recent public endorsement of a serving foreign official's
candidacy for his country's presidency.
At this critical juncture, we are at once extremely proud of our EPP
belonging and extremely troubled-for Armenia and for all Europe-by
the endless divide between the words and deeds of the Republic's de
facto rulers.
And we so very much regret that this statement has become necessary.
Story from Lragir.am News:
http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/politics25098.html
Published: 15:37:09 - 10/02/2012
The Heritage Party is pleased to have been granted observer membership
in the European People's Party by decision of its Political Assembly
meeting in Brussels.
Heritage has been an ideological carrier of EPP values from its
inception, and to date has taken consistent part in the activities of
the EPP group at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
Euronest, OSCE and elsewhere.
We are encouraged by the opportunities afforded us by the achievement
of observer status, which also is shared by the ruling Republican
Party and its coalition partner the Country of Laws Party.
At the same time we are deeply concerned, on this eve of parliamentary
and presidential elections in our country, by the unprecedented level
of political corruption prevalent here.
In addition to the flagrant examples of conflicts of interest between
public duty and partisan gain as outlined in Heritage chairman
Raffi K. Hovannisian's good-faith letter, dated 21 November 2011, to
Republican Party chairman and incumbent president Serzh Sargsyan,
together with his unresponsive outburst in reaction thereto,
the National Assembly-in which all three EPP observer members are
represented-continues to offer haven to electoral theft and political
forgery.
One recurrent episode took place on the very day EPP observer status
was conferred and the three parties acceded to a common declaration
of intentions and principles. In keeping with a long tradition of
voting fraud both at the polls and in parliament, various individuals
representing the EPP-observing coalition, with the conscious
assent and attempted cover-up of the legislature's leadership (again
observer party members), were complicit in the commission of outright
falsification, that is, the unlawful casting of votes in the place
of absent colleagues and in plain view of fellow MPs, journalists,
and the public. On this occasion, the foregoing was done for the
parliamentary majority's illegitimate securing first of a quorum and
then of their desired outcomes on several measures of substance.
In the event of even one further instance of this criminal conduct-in
the National Assembly, at the Presidency, or during the upcoming
elections-the Heritage Party will be unable to reconcile, whether
politically, ethically or otherwise, its participation in the great
family of European parties known as EPP with the presence of those
responsible for such anti-democratic, anti-Armenian, and anti-European
demeanor.
In this connection, but as a matter to be treated separately,
we cannot but express our consternation upon the Armenian prime
minister's recent public endorsement of a serving foreign official's
candidacy for his country's presidency.
At this critical juncture, we are at once extremely proud of our EPP
belonging and extremely troubled-for Armenia and for all Europe-by
the endless divide between the words and deeds of the Republic's de
facto rulers.
And we so very much regret that this statement has become necessary.